The word hierarchy dates back to the 14th century and as with many command and control terms from long ago, there are religious connotations. Hierós is the Greek term for sacred or holy and arkhēs is the term for ruling. Combine these together and you get ‘head priest’. (hierárkhēs) Over the years, Latin, French and English derivatives produced similar meanings. By the 17th century hierarchy became linked to the ranks of the clergy, cementing its relationship to religion. Nowadays, hierarchy can be found not only in religion, but in the military and in the corporate world through defined levels of management power and influence. Which leads me to describe how I believe hierarchy starts with a ‘higher arc and key’. Whether or not we should
gary hamel Archive
I knew things were starting to go a little 2.0 crazy when our 3rd child (and second daughter) was being referred to as Claire 2.0 by family, friends, etc. Her actual name is Cate. (the oldest is Claire) So how are we to make sense of this 2.0 landscape when everything seems to be coined 2.0 these days? First of all, we should thank our lucky stars for Marcia Conner. She has recently written about this and does far better than I ever could to succinctly decipher the history, rationale and inanity of such a moniker. That being stated, and for purposes of furthering my argument (and many others: see Hamel, Malone, Tapscott, etc.) that organizations need to flatten and become community connected in heterarchical
There are organizations in this world that ‘get it’, there are those that are figuring it out, and there are those that just can’t see the light. I’m referring to the tsunami of change concerning the way in which people expect to operate, not just inside the corporate walls, but as good ole human beings. You may argue that Gary Hamel and Thomas Malone were (or are) ahead of their time. In each of their revolutionary (and obviously evolutionary) books (The Future of Management and The Future of Work), the underlying principle is that in order to drive results, innovation, productivity and efficient use of time, the organization needs to become flat. Malone states ““As managers, we need to shift our thinking from command and